Need Help.. New to raising Chickens

[Susie Hjermstad]

I am new to posting here, so I hope someone can help me. We moved to the country and got settled and decided to get chickens. So we bought 6 chicks from Tractor Supply on April 29th. 22 weeks later... we lost one right away and another to a fox,so now have 4, hens?. We were told that they were all pullets, but none of them have layed the first egg, and 3 of them crow all the time. I am going to try and attach pictures of the ones that are crowing. I have one hen that is an Orpington, and she gets picked on by these other 3. She hasn't even layed an egg yet.

These 3 are the ones that crow all the time.. every morning. The one at the bottom is huge..she is in charge, but the bronze one in the picture above is starting to chase all of them!

 

[sourland]

I'm sorry, but all three are cockerels. They are not picking on the hen. They are trying to breed her, and there is potential that they may injure her in the process as they attempt to push one another off of her.

 

[sourland]

I forgot to say

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

All three are cockerels.Sorry!

 

[Susie Hjermstad]

All three are cockerels.Sorry!

How can you tell that they are roosters?

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Sorry you got over cocked..... and female chickens are called pullets until they are a year old. THEN they become hens.

 

[chickendreams24]

Yes welcome to byc. You need to re-home or process these boys immediately they could injure or kill your pullet.

Also over breeding will stress her out and could cause her not to lay. At only 22 weeks she may not even be ready.

You're going to want to get some more pullets to keep you only girl company.

I'm sorry this happened some feed stores are notorious for mismarking their straight run birds as sexed pullets.

Accidents do happen but not that many.

You can clearly see the point sweeping sideways, shiny saddle feathers on all three of them. That is just one way to tell they're all boys.

Although some hens do crow it's pretty rare and is a huge red flag.

I can guarantee that these three are without a doubt boys.

 

[Susie Hjermstad]

Yes welcome to byc. You need to re-home or process these boys immediately they could injure or kill your pullet.

Also over breeding will stress her out and could cause her not to lay. At only 22 weeks she may not even be ready.

You're going to want to get some more pullets to keep you only girl company.

I'm sorry this happened some feed stores are notorious for mismarking their straight run birds as sexed pullets.

Accidents do happen but not that many.

You can clearly see the point sweeping sideways, shiny saddle feathers on all three of them. That is just one way to tell they're all boys.

Although some hens do crow it's pretty rare and is a huge red flag.

I can guarantee that these three are without a doubt boys.

Thank you so much.. I knew something wasn't right.

 

[Gray Farms]

Those three are all males.

 

[Hope Hughes]

Sorry to hear you lost some. But the 3 pictures are all roosters... Roos crow hens do not. I agree with the above they are trying to mate with your hen. With there Only being 1 hen to 3 roos They will end up hurting her fighting over her. I would lose all but 1 roo and try to find a few more HENS.